


Glory ( Only One)

by CautiousOptimism



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: Babies, Comfort/Angst, F/M, Family, Fluff and Angst, Post-Series, Self-Doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 23:49:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3507239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CautiousOptimism/pseuds/CautiousOptimism
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And now he was here; he was real. No longer just a kick against his palms, but an actual human being, alive. And he was theirs.  He would depend on them for food, shelter, protection and most of all love. It was his job now; Will was Daddy.</p>
<p>Will reflects on his fears in the aftermath of his child's birth and gains a little hope along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glory ( Only One)

**Author's Note:**

> I heard the new song from Kanye West called Only One, that he wrote for his daughter and I couldn't stop humming it. It also reminded me about the song Jay-Z wrote for his daughter after she was born. I think both songs are beautiful and they inspired this. Enjoy

Glory (only one)

_The most amazing feeling I feel, words can’t describe what I’m feeling for real. Baby I paint the sky blue. My greatest creation was you – Glory, Jay-Z_

He opens the door slowly and begins to move inside but stops short at the sight in front of him. His wife with her messy hair, her fringe sweat slicked to her forehead, cheeks flushed with exhaustion and the most adoring look on her face he had ever seen.  She had never been more beautiful. All her attention was on the small bundle in her arms, not even looking away when he opened the door.

In her arms was their newborn son.

_False alarms and false starts, all made better by the sound of your heart_

 Will kept replaying the moment over an hour ago when the baby came into the world. It had been a relatively quiet mid-January Sunday morning for them (after a week of Braxton hicks and false alarms) when MacKenzie had gone into labour. It was a surprisingly calm affair, with Will being the one who freaked out ( after being Director of Morale and the voice of reason when Mac panicked during the pregnancy) and MacKenzie was the picture of composure ( as much as one can be in the midst of pushing another human being into the world). Will had been amazed. Sure there were some curse words thrown his way and some tears but she held it together. Then their son was suddenly being placed on her chest, umbilical cord and all. A small little thing, loudly crying as his mother’s arms came around him, with tears spilling from her eyes and words of endearment being whispered to him.  Will still in too much shock to say anything and his vision was blurry with unshed tears.

Will had put his arm around MacKenzie as they gazed at their son. Then the nurses took their little boy out her hands to clean him up and dress him. His wife had motioned for Will to follow them. The baby had been returned to his mother’s arms when he was clean and Will had gone to inform those most important to them of the new arrival.

He had just come back from returning calls to family and friends to let them know that mom and baby were both doing great. He had felt giddy with happiness at the excitement of his son’s birth but now the enormity of it all was hitting him as he came upon his new little family.

Mac looked up from the squirming bundle in her arms to land on him hovering awkwardly by the door.

“See there’s daddy” she says in a soft voice her eyes drifting back down to the baby in the next moment as if she couldn’t take her eyes off him for more than a second, entranced by the small squirming bundle.

Daddy.

That name felt foreign to him, but he was daddy. He still couldn’t quite wrap his hands around the concept; that he was someone’s father. He didn’t really feel like it ( may be it was because he had yet to hold his little boy) and looking at how captivated MacKenzie and the baby seemed to be with each other he felt like an outsider intruding on their private moment. Not like a daddy. Will can remember the feeling of his son’s feet dancing against MacKenzie’s belly on the spots where he would put his hands and now he was here; he was real. No longer just a kick against his palms, but an actual human being, alive. And he was theirs.  He would depend on them for food, shelter, protection and most of all love. It was his job now; Will was Daddy.

And for a moment a panic rose in him that he hadn’t felt since learning that he was to be a father. A fear that he wouldn’t be good enough, that he would be like his father, that he would _fail_ , gripped him. He couldn’t be someone’s father. What did he know of raising children?

Then he heard her voice breaking through his thoughts.

“Come here, Billy. Come meet your son”

MacKenzie holds out her hand and beckons him forward, pulling him out of his dark thoughts. Saving him, always saving him. Pulling him from the brink of his own self destruction.  He goes to her (as he always does when she calls), feet moving as if they have a mind of their own.

In the next moment he was beside her bed and looking down at the squirming bundle in her arms.  The little boy looked much better now that he was cleaned of all that gunk that he was covered in at birth, Will had to admit. MacKenzie still had a soft smile on her face as she rocked the baby.

“He looks just like you” Mac said as she continued to look down lovingly at the baby. Will’s eyes had almost popped out of his head as he stared at his wife. He didn’t see any resemblance to the wrinkled pink bundle in her arms but he nods anyway. How much drugs had they given her?

“Here you should take him” Mac said finally shifting her eyes to him and leaning over in a motion to give him the infant.

Will shifted back on his heal and hesitated slightly.

“I don’t think I should, he’s so small”

Mackenzie gave him a soft smile. “Oh Will. You’re the gentlest man I know. You won’t hurt him, I promise.”

He looks at her again still unsure, but glad of her confidence in him and he takes a step closer to her. Will holds out his hands like he learned in the baby classes they took and Mac shifts their son into his arms gently. It’s a strange new feeling, the weight of his son in his arms. He likes it. Will can’t help the smile that takes over his face. The baby feels entirely too small and his arms entirely too big but in some ways it feels natural. His son squirms against him and warmth spreads through him.

“Hi Benjamin” He says running his finger down the baby’s soft check and looking over his every feature and counting all ten of his fingers. Okay, so maybe the kid did have his nose.

His attention is brought back to MacKenzie when he hears her sniffle and she wipes the corner of her eyes.

“Sorry” she says as she leans over to get a better view of the baby “It’s just that at some point in my life I never thought this would be a reality”

Will just smiles and leans over to give her a fierce kiss.  She was amazing and he told her as much. She seemed to have taken to motherhood like a duck to water, yet he still felt unsure of his abilities.

He looks back down at his son again as his fears come back to the surface. Will holds out his forefinger, brushing it against Ben’s fingers and the baby wraps his hand entirely around Wills finger. A little life holding onto him.

“I’m scared” he chokes out, admitting his fears to his wife. “I don’t know where to begin with this whole dad thing”

She studied him and ran a hand through his hair, one hand still touching some part of the baby.

“You love him. That’s where you start.  You just love him, Will and the rest we’ll figure out together. You, me and little Benjamin Charles over here.”

_One day, you’ll be the man you always knew you could be_

MacKenzie had always pushed him to be better, be the man she knew he could be. The one he thought was lost forever when she left. But she was crafty and had come back into his life like a whirl wind and had not stopped pushing him to be better and constantly giving him reason to _want_ to do better. Now she had given him another reason to do better, be better: Benjamin. And he looked at her; his wife. His lover. Giver of life.  The mother of his child and now his hands held their love. He knew that he wouldn’t (couldn’t) ever let them down or hurt them. He would always protect them (Will would never be his father).

It was one of the many moments that had happened in the past  few years (from their engagement, to their wedding, to finding out they were expecting) that Will wished his mother were here to see and Charlie too (without him bringing MacKenzie back, they may never have gotten to this point). _And if you knew how proud I was, you wouldn’t shed a tear._

 But he knows they would be happy and hopefully proud of him as well. He could almost imagine their voices…

_I talked to God about you; He said sent you an angel. And look at all that He gave you, you asked for one and you got two._

_And I hear her say ‘hello my only one, remember who you are. No you’re not perfect but you’re not your mistakes’- Only One, Kanye west_


End file.
